In Part 1 of the dvSwitch scripting series I created a simple dvSwitch with 2 uplinks, which I connected to all the ESX hosts that were returned as possible candidates. In this part I will show you how to add a dvPortgroups and how you can connect Virtual Machines to this dvPortgroup.

With the introduction of vSphere one of the new features that was introduced was the vNetwork Distributed Switch. This new type of switch offers many more features than the “classical” vSwitch we knew.

In the current PowerCLI build there are no cmdlets present to create, configure, manage and remove this new type of switch. Surely this will change in one of the upcoming PowerCLI releases.

On the PowerCLI community someone raised a question how he could get a list of guests that were created longer than 30 days ago. The obvious source to get this kind of information are the events that VI/vSphere keeps. Note that in vSphere you will have to take into account how long events are kept! The current PowerCLI build provides the Get-ViEvent cmdlet that allows you to get at the information. Continue reading Events: a great source of information – Part 1→

On Carter’s vSPhere PowerCLI Blog site we learned, just before VMworld, about Project Onyx. The program that will come out of this project will allow users to generate PowerShell code from actions done in the vSphere Client. But while we wait till the program comes in GA, is there an alternative for finding out what API call(s) an action in the vSphere Client generates ? In fact there is. And it’s free ! Continue reading The Onyx alternative ?→

As a follow-up to my My PS toolbelt entry this article gives an overview of my current PowerShell/PowerCLI library. The library is a collection of actual books and Internet links that I reference quite regularly. The order in which books and links are listed does not indicate any preference from my side.

But sometimes one of the PowerCLI cmdlets is missing a parameter you would like to use or has a parameter you don’t want to use in your environment. With the advent of PowerShell v2 you can now customise the PowerCLI cmdlets to your liking with the help of proxy cmdlets.

A question I get quite regularly is what tools and utilities do I use for developing PowerShell and PowerCLI scripts. The following list should shed a bit of light. A warning, this is my personal selection of tools and utilities and it is not my intention to convince anyone to switch to any of the tools mentioned. Continue reading My PS toolbelt→